Masuda Takashi

Baron , was a Japanese industrialist, investor, and art collector. He was a prominent entrepreneur in Meiji, Taishō and early Shōwa period Japan, responsible for transforming Mitsui into a zaibatsu through the creation of a general trading company, Mitsui & Co. He also established a newspaper, the , which was later renamed the Nihon Keizai Shimbun.

Biography Masuda was born on Sado Island, in what is now Niigata Prefecture.

His father was an official in the Tokugawa shogunate, serving as Hakodate bugyō. Masuda's ancestors have been - for generations - employed at Sado Magistrate's Office. Masuda's father became Hakodate bugyō, serving as a representative of the central government to the regional magistrate office.

Masuda accompanied Ikeda Nagaoki in the unsuccessful 1863 Second Japanese Embassy to Europe to negotiate the cancellation of the open-port status of Yokohama. He was inspired by Western culture so, upon his return home, he studied English at the Hepburn School (the forerunner of Meiji Gakuin University).

In 1900, Masuda created the Taiwan Sugar Corporation, beginning Mitsui’s expansion into Japanese overseas colonies. By the 1910s, Mitsui had developed into Japan’s largest general trading company, accounting for nearly 20% of Japan’s total trade.

Masuda formally retired in 1913, and devoted his energies towards the Japanese tea ceremony. He had residences in Odawara and Kamakura, where he hosted tea ceremonies. He founded one of the two most prestigious annual chakai in Japan, which - to this day - only invited economically prominent people. In 1918, he was elevated in rank of baron (danshaku) in the kazoku peerage system. His son, Masuda Tarokagyu, was a noted playwright.

Masuda died in 1938, and his grave is at the Buddhist temple of Gokoku-ji in Tokyo.